David is worried about getting older because he’s worried that, when he grows up, he’ll like hot sauce and football. He sees how his father and his father’s friends consume hot sauce and football and so it seems inevitable that eventually his weekends will be full of Sriracha and shouting, “COME ON! THAT WAS HOLDING!” And yet, that didn’t keep
David is five years old today. FIVE! And he still weighs less than the amount of weight I gained when I was pregnant with him. Everyone knows about the terrible twos, and then you have a three-nager. There is no similar catch-phrase for four-year olds. Or if there is I’ve never heard it. Four was such
Sometime before Thomas’s first birthday, he was standing by the couch and let go, took a few steps, and then plopped down. I watched him and willed the moment to crystalize in my memory. My baby, learning to walk right before my eyes! So beautiful! This moment is why we have children! And then he did the same thing
I’ve been putting off this post for a long time. There are two reasons. First, I have a lot to say. A lot. Second, I’m not sure how to say it. Describing a baby every month is different than describing a toddler. And describing a toddler is different than describing Mary Virginia. I could not, would
They way Thomas is standing, it looks like I caught him in the act of something naughty. What I caught him doing was standing. I was taking photos of his fancy three-year old sister in the front yard and I turned around and he was showing off his new trick. Thomas has been pulling up since mid-February, but he just
On her last day of school, Mary Virginia did not want to get dressed, eat breakfast, or let me fix her hair. She definitely did not want to stand on the stairs, and look directly into the sun while I took her photo. She’s dressed and on her way to school because, even though she didn’t want
A few weeks ago I was filling out a preschool application for Mary Virginia. The application asked lots of questions to help the teachers get to know her, including some of her social and academic skills. One question asked which numbers she could recognize, and I wasn’t sure how to answer. Then I thought about
David started preschool over two years ago, just a few weeks after his second birthday (Mary Virginia was barely three months old). Back then he wasn’t potty trained, had no hair, and was barely speaking in sentences. And, he didn’t have an opinion about what he wore so I was able to coordinate his clothes with the
Me, talking to Tom: Did we decide we want to have P-I-Z-Z-A for dinner? David: Mommy, did you just say “pizza” in letters?
I don’t often give parenting advice here, but Thomas asked me to tell you about this. Give your babies a chicken bone. A chicken bone, cooked and stripped — it’s nature’s teether. All my babies have loved chicken bones because all babies love chicken bones because, what’s not to love? It has flavor, it’s the perfect shape for holding and